Year 4 have been learning about the water cycle in science this term, and have discovered the properties of the three states of matter: solids, liquids and gases. This week we looked at how water changes between these three states, and we did an experiment to see evaporation and condensation in action!

First, the children put some warm water in a glass or bowl, and put some foil with ice on on top. Then Year 4 made their predictions about what would happen. They discovered that after a little while the bottom of the foil was covered in water droplets! Year 4 were able to identify that the warm water had evaporated due to its temperature, and risen to the top of the glass or bowl as a gas - water vapour. When it hit the cold foil at the top, it condensed and became liquid water droplets. The children correctly predicted that when these water droplets got heavy enough, they would fall back down into the warm water as precipitation. 

After doing the experiment, it was time to write up their findings. The children drew what they saw, and wrote about their observations. Year 4 did an excellent job describing what they saw, and what this means scientifically, using the new key vocabulary: EVAPORATION and CONDENSATION. 

See how to do the experiment here and our results here.

Well done Year 4 scientists!